by USA TODAY

by USA TODAY

OSTON (AP) - Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley is organizing a meeting between Pope Francis and a group of sex abuse victims at the Vatican that he says is expected to take place "in the coming months."

Francis announced the meeting on Monday and declared "zero tolerance" for any member of the clergy who would violate a child.

O'Malley says the details of the meeting haven't been finalized yet.

Francis called abusing children an "ugly" crime that betrays God.

The Catholic Church clergy sex abuse crisis broke nationally in 2002 after The Boston Globe wrote a series of stories revealing that church officials in Boston shifted pedophile priests between parishes without disclosing their alleged crimes.

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